


on the road to grimgolir

by thestuffedalligator



Series: M9 next generation ficlets [3]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Drabble, Ficlet, Future Fic, Mollymauk Tealeaf Lives
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 19:40:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20784035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thestuffedalligator/pseuds/thestuffedalligator
Summary: The nephew of Caduceus Clay makes a new (old) friend





	on the road to grimgolir

Snow fell over the northern Marrow Valley. A log shifted in the fire with a soft crunching noise.

Harlequin Lavorre sighed and prodded at the fire with a stick. "I wish Kiri came with us," she muttered.

Calianna nodded from behind the map. "Couldn’t be helped, I guess," she said. "Family is always important."

Harlequin tossed the stick into the fire. "But I thought that _ we _ were a family!"

Calianna folded up the map and sighed. "We are," she said. "You and me - and you, too, Clay."

"And don’t you forget it," Cudbear said, not looking up from the arrow he was fletching.

"We’re family because of my parents, your parents, and Clay’s uncle." She walked around the fire to Harlequin and dropped an arm across her shoulder, a feat only made possible by the fact that Calianna was standing and Harlequin was sitting. "We’re _ Neins_," she said. "Kiri’s a Shuster. And family comes first."

Harlequin sniffed and leaned against her. "I guess so," she mumbled.

Calianna reached out her other hand. "Clay, you want to get in on this?"

The fire crackled. Calianna looked over. "Cudbear?"

Cudbear was looking off into the darkness. His ears were turning, trying to tune into a specific sound. His huge nostrils flared.

He stood up and slung his bow across his back. "Hey, you two will be okay if I walk off into the woods for a minute, right?" he said, already loping off into the darkness.

Calianna and Harlequin stared after him. "Why is he like this?" Calianna muttered. Harlequin giggled.

It was a _ fascinating _smell.

Cudbear Clay was used to the smell of rot and decomposition - the Clays proudly made a point of associating themselves with it - and while this had overtones of that, they were caked over the smell of something fresh. It wasn’t the smell of reanimation - another smell the Clays proudly made a point of associating themselves with - but it was like the smell of rebirth, renewal. It glowed like a signal flare in the night air.

Catha was full in the sky, and the snow of the valley shined with its light. And there, leaving a trail a half-blind hill giant could track, was a naked tiefling staring up at the moon.

Cudbear looked at him. They were either a grayish-brown tiefling, or a tiefling so completely covered in mud that telling their skin color was impossible. He thought he saw bits of metal on their horns, tiny glimpses of silver that glittered in the moonlight.

They were clutching something on their shoulders. It might’ve been a cloak once. It was so rotten and threadbare that it looked more like a shawl.

Cudbear watched them.

Oh, what the hell. "Evening, friend," he said, stepping out into the snow.

The tiefling turned and stared.

"Bit cold out here, isn't it?" Cudbear said.

The tiefling stared

Cudbear looked at the cloak the tiefling had draped over their shoulders. That was the source of the smell of decomposition, that was for sure. There were mushrooms growing on the thing. He reached over, plucked one, and popped it into his mouth. "_Laccaria bicolor_," he muttered as he chewed. "Seems you’re a bit overgrown, friend."

The tiefling stared.

Cudbear swallowed and sighed. "Listen, if you’re undead you have to tell me. And if you’re undead, I gotta kill you. That’s just how it is."

"Empty," the tiefling said.

Cudbear squinted. The tiefling stared. Somewhere, a giant owl hooted in the night.

Cudbear came back to the light of the fireplace with a naked tiefling covered in dirt. "I made a friend," he said as Harlequin shrieked and pulled her cloak over her face. "Don’t worry, he’s not undead. I checked."

"_Why are you like this_?!" Calianna yelled.


End file.
